A new course by AVP helps communicate impact to enhance your career
Impact With Research by Aalto Ventures Program is a professional development training course for researchers that aim to enhance and strengthen their skills in exploring and communicating their impact and gain skills and resources for career progression, both inside and outside academia, and perhaps even mixing the two.
Course teacher Paul Savage, D.Sc. (Econ.), explains why the course is necessary and what makes it unique.
鈥滻n the scientific method, you observe, question, test hypotheses. You experiment and draw conclusions, or troubleshoot and experiment again. With the world changing quickly, experimentation is a useful method outside the lab, as well. It allows us to figure out what鈥檚 going on and even see glimpses of a future we build. In this course, we would like to question and experiment in other areas of life. This should be driven by the question, 鈥榃hat can we do for others?鈥欌
The course takes a personal approach to education, with methods including personal reflection, fireside chats, and hearing stories of people鈥檚 paths after completing their doctoral studies.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to strip away stereotypes of what we鈥檙e supposed to do and instead figure out what鈥檚 best for us and society. The first question we ask our students is, 鈥榃hat can we do for you?鈥 We want the participants to think about how their personal goals and futures are woven into the communities we live in,鈥 Dr. Savage explains.
There鈥檚 also a heavy focus on discussions and sharing expertise. As the course is offline 鈥 away from the keyboard 鈥 participants will be communicating their research and their ideas on impact to a 鈥渓ive audience鈥 throughout the four sessions.
鈥淓veryone can learn something by listening to one person, but you can learn so much more by talking to other people and wrestling with ideas together,鈥 says Dr. Savage.
The course is open to all doctoral students, researchers, and faculty working at Aalto University. It is a prerequisite to have a research topic to work on during the course.
Read more and sign up .
More information about the course
Read more news
From Mexico to Finland: Discovering UX Design at Aalto University Summer School
Paulo travelled from Mexico to Finland to study UX design, meet students from around the world and experience Finnish life.
Arttu J盲盲skel盲inen switched fields to expand his energy market expertise
In his major, Energy Systems and Markets, Arttu J盲盲skel盲inen wants to focus on strategic expertise in the field
Aalto Distinguished Professor Jukka Pekola鈥檚 message: Basic research is at the heart of progress
Department of Applied Physics Professor Jukka Pekola was appointed Aalto Distinguished Professor on September 1, 2026.